Camera Progress

II am rather pleased with this photo taken at last week's camera class. Firstly it is taken on macro and secondly it really is this browny-pink colour. When I took it on Auto, the colour of the flower spike came out sky-blue. The correct colour arrived when I experimented with the White Balance. When I started the camera course, I did not know I had an adjustment for White Balance - or indeed many of the things like F no, exposure and ISO number. One reason for attending the class was to decide whether I needed to buy a posher camera before this summer's expeditions. The answer is that I shan't bother. I won't want to carry around anything heavier anyway.

One result is that taking photos of textiles has become a more time-consuming business as I experiment with the camera settings.

 

 

 Last week I tidied up the studio ready for my grandson to stencil on a couple of T-shirts on Sunday. And I managed to weave to the end of the samples for the Complex Weavers Study Group on Tied Weaves. The above shows the use of different yarns.  I am pleased to be working on the Megado now which is going well but not much of interest is showing yet. I will be weaving some more today so should be able to post a photo tomorrow.

Much of my time in the last few days has been spent dealing with computers. I have got all the photos which Michael set up, on to web storage and put most of mine on to Dropbox. Also I have saved all the old emails I want to keep. I think that is the Linux machines dealt with and I could switch them off but will leave them another week or so. I still have files to be web stored  which are currently on a failing Microsoft machine. I reckon it will be another week or so before I have done as I have decided to restrict myself to 2 or 3 hours per day on this task. Soon I will have to start a hunt for the master CDs  so that I can install the basic programs on the one machine which is functioning properly.

Fortunately the laptop is okay. 

 

 

Orange Tree

Here is my orange tree looking quite good after two weeks with me. If you look carefully you should be able to see that it is covered with orange blossom but - - -

a close-up is better. Isn't it gorgeous? And the room is heavily scented!!

I have been learning a lot from my classes on the digital camera. White Balance last night - and the tutor brought in some flowers to practise macro on. So I tried both at the same time and got good colour as a result. There is every hope thatmy photos of textiles will be more accurate in colour in the future.

Not much on textiles in the past few days. When I have a few minutes, I weave a  few inches on the Voyager. This is for samples for the Tied Weaves Study Group.

But mostly I am sorting out computers. I spent about 5 hours yesterday sorting out old emails. They are now in a place of safety.  But before I do anything like switching off the two Linux machines, I need to deal with the photo albums used by Picasa and operating under Linux. The problem is that Michael wrote captions in Picasa for many of the photos and I don't want to lose these captions. But hwo do I get the controlling file from a Linux Picasa  to be put on a Microsoft operating system. And I don't feel I can move any files around until I have accomplished this.

Off to consult with son-in-law.

PS and NB. I have not really looked at Picasa for three years. I was horrified to see that Michael's setup included over 2000 photos but that my weaving/textile photos (which were never captioned) amount to over 6000  and I know that there are a raft more on one of the computer including all the jpgs which were scanned in from slides!! What am I going to do with this lot.  No doubt there are a huge number of duplicates but it will take me days to tidy that lot up.



Antique Textile Fair in Manchester

For years I have wanted to visit the annual Antique Textile Fair run by the Textile Society. It is held in Manchester these days. And yesterday (Sunday) I drove up there. The above shows some of what was going on. Most of the stuff was vintage not antique, that is, it was 20s or later. Beaded flapper dresses, lovely hats, shoes with stiletto heels and a stall selling the kind of 60s curtain fabric that we bought for our first home. In short not a lot to interest me. There was a stall selling spinning bobbins and fly shuttles. Not that I need a fly shuttle and these ones were in very bad condition and would only have been usable with a lot of TLC. I suspect they were being sold as props for displays. I did find a stand with some chops for sale (metal devices for applying a wax pattern in batik) and they had clearly been renovated with some care. So I bought one for my sister. I also bought a couple of wooden stamps. The only other thing I bought was some rather nice ribbon. A nice day out looking at lots of fabric but I would not bother going again.

These are my purchases. The chop is right centre. The strange paper bag was given to me with the stamps and the chop in. It is made from Indonesian local papers!! I will put it on display. Interestingly enough, I was asked by other stall holders if they could look at it and where did I get it?

Saturday was Kennet Valley Guild day and the three monthly Challenge was 'Chocolate'. This brought out the best in the Guild and I cannot resist showing two of the (all) exceptional entries.

The chocolate cake is by Sal Shepherd and is beautifully knitted. The top is knitted to look like chocolate butter icing which has been smoothed on with a fork. The chocolateswere needle felted by Chris Fletcher who made a gold paper box to fit the four chocolates.

 

 

Now off to tidy up. We are finishing the 6 yards of tweed in the bath today. I will have very clean feet at the end of the process!

Another Finished

As promised yesterday, this is the finished weaving from the Voyager. It is slow to weave and you have to keep a close eye on it to detect errors in weaving. There has been quite a bit of unweaving going on. This is a candidate for the Megado because of the computer, not because of the number of shafts which is only eight. The colours are correct or nearly so. There are hems at each end. Since the warp is a 2/20 cotton, the fringe is not very attractive and, although I have called it a scarf, it may end up as a runner with the fringe removed and stitched hems put in. This is because of the weft pattern yarn which is a two-ply Shetland. But soft it is not. I have washed it and it is drying now but it still feels harsh, harsher than I would want to wear next to my skin. That was a problem with the old Handweaver's Studio 2-ply Shetland. The colours were wonderful but the yarn was not as soft to the touch as that from Jamieson and Smith in the Shetlands.  Although I regret to report that they have reduced the number of colours they sell to about a quarter of what they had a few years ago.

 

So what next. Well I must finished off the Hockney sleeve at the top so that I can deliver it to Guild tomorrow. And then to tie on the Megado warps.

 

Yesterday I visited the surgery nurse to sort out what injections/medication I need for the 'Great Trip'. She did a typhoid injection on the spot and that is it. I am all up to date with everything else. She wants a postcard from Samarkand. It is getting closer and things are getting organised. The trip is all paid for (my bank account feels unwell) but no way could I be said to be living within my income this year. Oh well, I can't take it with me. I am beginning to wonder about packing and whether it would be feasible to post 'stuff' home so as to leave space in my luggage for other 'stuff'.  But is the Post Office gettable or honest in places like Dun Huang? And will padded envelopes and brown paper, sellotape etc actually take up just as much room as the 'stuff'?

Finished

I have woven 6 yards of what I suppose is really tweed. I managed to do more than a yard a day when all the ski shuttles were brought into play. Given that it is sleyed at 9 epi, you would have thought I could have managed more per day but the problem was having five loaded ski shuttles in use all the time. Every four picks, the shuttle had to be changed and the yarns had to be straightened out.  Last night, it was hemmed on the loom, cut off behind the knots and all the ends mended. There were not very many of them. A tribute to the way the yarn was spun and plied, I suppose, but I had not a single broken/bust/disintegrated warp thread. One interesting fact is that it was 36 inches in the reed but 33 inches off the loom - even though I used a temple. I want a final width of 30 inches and it still has to be finished. That is next Monday's job when Linda and I are going to put it in my bath and walk on it. I wove to within three inches of the knots.

 

I am attending a camera class at the local Technical College and took the tweed outside for a phot session. I have ended up with four halfway decent photos - but we decided these should not be published.

 

I have gone back to the Quigley on the Voyager. The Kennet Valley Guild Challenge for the March meeting on Saturday is 'Chocolate' and my scarf is called 'Belgian Chocolate, White and Milk'. So I want to finish this by Friday night!!

 

 

In the stash, I found a large quantity of Shetland 2-ply from Handweavers Studio bought many years ago. The photo does not really do it justice as there is a different pattern on the back. When it comes off the loom, I will try to take a more artistic photo.

 

After Saturday, I will tie on the Bourrette silk warps to the ghost warp on the Megado and paint the warp. I have a photo of Castlemorton Common I want to base this weaving on.  The Thermofax I am going to use on the woven cloth  has arrived. I am looking forward to this as I have not done anything like this for ages.  Note that I said warps. I intend to weave two warps side by side at the same time. This will make sure that I have colours aligned across the two warps. I have not done this before but can't see any problems (I bet there are though).

 

One other point, someone said to me that I seemed to be forever weaving and what about the dusting? Well it gets done but I don't find it very interesting and so assume that noone else does either!  Recently I did turn out the hall cupboard which contains large quantities of yarn and I was horrified at the stuff in there which I will never use. So that is going to the Guild meeting on Saturday. I intend to do the same to the contents of the window seat soon.

 

And just in case you were wondering, my face has healed up completely. I have taken some of the spotlights out and will put them back when they are needed. I wear my visored cap for weaving under these arc lights!!!

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Still Sunburnt

It is taking a long time for my skin to get better but it is definitely improving. People greet me with 'Have you been using a tanning bed?  - which shows you what I look like. I stayed away from the Megado under the lights all last week but I did warp up the Voyager and have woven a fair bit on that - wearing a visored cap which says DIAMOND on it. My grand-daughter still thinks this is hysterically funny. But it works. Yesterday(Saturday) I went back to the Megado plus visored cap and did a couple of hours weaving. I have borrowed four ski shuttles and progress should be faster. I can't remember the last time I worked with five shuttles!! The problem is that the weft colour changes every four picks and it is waste of handspun, not to mention mending time, to break the yarn at each change so all the yarn is being taken (tidily) up the right hand selvedge. To keep everything under control, I put the not-in-use shuttles on top of the castle and clip all the yarns together using a clothes peg which is tied firmly to the castle. This is a great improvement.

 

Other things this week? I went into Redditch hospital (NHS nice and friendly) to have my gullet inspected again. They were checking that the medication worked  and it has done. So they want to see me again in two years.  But it did wipe out two whole days of  the week.

 

Today I must finish off the Hockney changes. The Hockney was mounted on three stout wooden frames which proved to be a pest for storage and transport. Only one or two people had cars big enough to transport them. So it was decided (by Rosie Price) that they should be taken off the frames, have the backs tidied up and a hanging sleeve installed. Then  they could all be rolled up, put into one bag and stored/transported much more easily. I volunteered to do one of the three and it has to be finished for next Saturday. I have hand stitched down both sides, installed Velcro on the bottom edge and hand stitched that into place. Just the sleeve at the top to do.

 

Well, can't hang around here gossiping.   

A Severe Case of Sunburn

The weather is cold, temperatures are around 0 to 5 Centigrade. And yet I am plastering my face with creams to deal with 'sunburn'. This has been caused by sitting at the Megado for hours under the blazing halogen lights. Yes, it is nice and bright around the Megado but I can't have this. So I have re-angled all the spot lights and propose to wear a visored cap when I weave. The cap has been acquired from my grand-daughter who thinks it is very funny. The other solution is weave only during the day when there is plenty of day light. I tried that yesterday and it worked. I have never heard of anyone being afflicted this way. I would be interested in hearing of anyone else who has met this problem.

 

I am getting along with the handspun weaving on the Megado and it is looking good. But it is clearly not going to be finished for another week or two. There are other weaving projects I must complete in the next  few weeks and so I took the ikat off the Voyager because it is not good enough.I thought I had got the warp all nicely squared up but obviously not. I will try again in June when all the deadlines have been met.

 

I have rewarped the Voyager with 2/20 cotton to do some Tied Weave samples for the Complex Weavers Tied Weaves Study group. I have decided to study Quigley weaves this year. I read all I could find about them which is not a lot. And I created lots of fancy drafts but they all suffered from having floats which were too long. So I have settled on something less artistically challenging  where the floats are respectable at 5 threads in a warp set at 30epi.

 

 

And then of course there is weaving to be done for the Midlands Textile Forum.